The whole point of 'Boris Island', I thought, was to avoid having to give a real answer to his position on airport expansion. Any awkward questions about this subject could be mitigated by waffling on about this 'spiffing idea about an island, what'? Any chance of finding out how much money has been wasted on it?

Yes I think you're spot on there Karl. It was an easy fob to the airport lobby whilst avoiding dealing with the more awkward problems of the here and now.

No vast amount has been spent on it so far, which was in itself a clue as to how serious an idea it ever was. The fact that the report he commissioned put a completion date of 2030 on it at the earliest was also a bit of a clue. It was always a fantasy.

About Adam Bienkov

Journalist at Politics.co.uk and contributor to MSN News, The Guardian and elsewhere. I also write a London politics blog for Snipe Magazine.
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